Turkish presidency of G20 focuses on action for all

Turkey assumed theG20 presidency on Monday, and Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu explained the goals his government intends to achieve.

"The G20 membership has devised a comprehensive policy framework in a variety of areas, and put forward substantial commitments to achieve our common objective of strong, sustainable and balanced growth," Davotoglu says.

"Now is the time to act. As the G20 Chair, Turkey will spare no effort in fulfilling its critical responsibilities, to steer the platform so that we achieve our ambitious targets."

According to Davutoglu, the Turkish presidency of the G20 will focus its efforts on ensuring inclusive and robust growth through collective action.

This can be formulated as the three Is of the Turkish Presidency: Inclusivity, Implementation and Investment for growth, Davutoglu stated in a message in the G20's website.

Inclusiveness has both domestic and global dimensions. At the domestic level, we must ensure that the benefits of growth and prosperity are shared by all segments of the society. For this purpose, we will emphasize issues specific to small and medium-sized enterprises, follow up our commitment on strengthening gender equality in employment as well as addressing youth unemployment," Davutoglu explained.

In the same way, for a number of work streams within the G20, including financial regulation, international tax, and international financial architecture, words have played their part. 2015 will be the time for action, and the year of implementation, Davutoglu said.

In November 2014, the G20 agreed to the Brisbane Action Plan, and pledged to undertake about 1000 initiatives which, if fully implemented, will add more than $2 trillion to the global GDP and generate millions of additional jobs by 2018.

Davutoglu also stated that Turkey would put a firm emphasis on investment as a powerful driver of growth.

Building on existing projects, we will introduce a new narrative that will address the investment gaps of the member countries via concrete and ambitious investment strategies, he added.

Strengthening the global recovery, and increasing the potential for recovery, enhancing resilience and buttressing sustainability, will be the three pillars of the 2015 agenda under the Turkish Presidency.

Turkey will host a summit in Antalya, a southwestern province which is home to its biggest international sea resort.

Turkeys Deputy PM said Monday that "Singapore and Spain will be invited to the summit, as they are important countries in the global economic system. We will also be inviting Azerbaijan," Ali Babacan said.

According to Babacan, the leaders of the world's twenty largest economies will discuss the following topics in 2015: "Strong, sustainable and balanced economic growth, infrastructure investments, financial regulation, international financial architecture, international tax issues, energy, trade, employment, financing climate change, development and the fight against corruption."

The G20 summit, which is a forum of world's richest nations, brings together political and economic leaders from 20 major economies, including 19 individual countries -- Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, United Kingdom, the United States -- and the European Union.

Turkey took over the presidency of the G20 from Australia, and China will in turn preside over the summit in 2016.

The G20 is a grouping of the worlds largest economies accounting for around 90 per cent of global GDP, two thirds of the world's population and 80 percent of international trade.

It is a key group for tackling the worlds economic challenges, such as unemployment and income inequality, and is responsible for continuing to direct the global economy as it emerges from the recent financial crisis.